The recent language of mass governance associated with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani points toward treating participation as sustained popular involvement in governing itself, through ongoing campaigns, neighborhood-level structures, and participatory democratic processes tied to real policy decisions. What is notable about this is not that it offers a ready-made solution, but that it reopens a question democratic theory has too often closed: how public life might be reorganised so that large numbers of people can participate meaningfully.

Deliberative democracy’s normative ideals demand epistemic plurality and justice – not only the inclusion of diverse perspectives, but also the recognition of diverse forms and systems of knowledge. In practice, this ideal can fall short. Anna Slaviero examines the Norwegian Education Act’s systemic exclusion of Sámi knowledge from its deliberative consultation process, and suggests theoretical and practical steps towards epistemic justice in deliberative democracy.

In her new book, Activated Citizenship: the transformative power of citizens’ assemblies, Marjan Ehsassi explores the potential of citizens’ assemblies to address some of the challenges facing contemporary Western democracies. In this interview, Marjan is joined by John Gastil to reflect on key themes from the book. Drawing on both their research and life experiences, this conversation is a thoughtful reflection on citizens’ assemblies covering both the details of the process and the macropolitical challenges and potentials.

Global Deliberative processes are gaining traction, and they bring with them a fresh set of challenges for design and implementation. Not least is the question of how to systematise discussions from thousands of citizens across languages and cultures. In this piece, Iñaki Goñi discusses his work with ISWE Foundation developing a data strategy that looks beyond “Big Data” by foregrounding “Little Data” along with a normative commitment to democratising how and by whom that data is curated.